How to Fix Red Alert 2 Black Screen Windows 7
![]() | |
Developers | |
---|---|
Westwood Pacific | |
Publishers | |
Electronic Arts | |
Release dates | |
Windows | October 25, 2000 |
Reception | |
Metacritic | 84 |
Taxonomy | |
Monetization | Expansion pack |
Modes | Singleplayer, Multiplayer |
Pacing | Real-time |
Perspectives | Bird's-eye view, Isometric |
Controls | Multiple select, Point and select |
Genres | RTS |
Themes | Europe, North America, Africa, Oceania, Antarctica, Sci-fi, Space |
Series | Command & Conquer |
|
⤏ Go to series page | |
Command & Conquer | 1995 |
Command & Conquer: Red Alert | 1996 |
Command & Conquer: Sole Survivor | 1997 |
Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun | 1999 |
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 | 2000 |
Command & Conquer: Renegade | 2002 |
Command & Conquer: Generals | 2003 |
Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars | 2007 |
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 | 2008 |
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 - Uprising | 2009 |
Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight | 2010 |
OpenRA (unofficial) | 2010 |
Command & Conquer Remastered Collection | 2020 |
Renegade X (unofficial) | EA |
Contents
- 1 Availability
- 1.1 DLC and expansion packs
- 2 Essential improvements
- 2.1 Patches
- 2.2 LAN patch (fan made)
- 2.3 CnCNet YR Client
- 2.4 Command & Conquer Ultimate Collection Fixed Launchers (Origin)
- 3 Game data
- 3.1 Configuration file(s) location
- 3.2 Save game data location
- 3.3 Save game cloud syncing
- 4 Video
- 4.1 Widescreen resolution
- 5 Input
- 6 Audio
- 6.1 Localizations
- 7 Network
- 7.1 Multiplayer types
- 7.2 Connection types
- 7.3 Ports
- 8 Issues fixed
- 8.1 Game does not start (Origin)
- 8.2 "player already have the same serial" error
- 8.3 "***FATAL*** String Manager Failed to Initialize Properly" error
- 8.4 Black screen with switchable graphics
- 8.5 Game is purple/green colored and displays only on the other half of the screen
- 8.6 Some Windows elements flicker from behind the game
- 8.7 Lag/low FPS
- 8.8 Game runs too fast
- 8.9 Hero units in "Hollywood and Vain" mission lack their unique lines
- 9 Other information
- 9.1 API
- 9.2 Middleware
- 10 System requirements
- 11 Notes
- 12 References
Key points
- Small but dedicated community.
General information
- Command & Conquer Wiki - A wiki for everything Command & Conquer-related
- Project Perfect Mod - The most expansive RA2 mod site.
- CnCNet (multiplayer replacement; Yuri's Revenge expansion required)
- XWIS (legacy multiplayer replacement, default server lookup leads to this service)
- Red Alert 2 section on CNC.community
- Red Alert 2 section on C&C Communications Center
- Red Alert 2 section on CNCNZ.com
- Yuri's Revenge section on CNCNZ.com
Availability [edit]
Source | DRM | Notes | Keys | OS |
---|---|---|---|---|
Retail | | SafeDisc 2 DRM [Note 1]. The installer for the base game is also DRM-protected, but not the one for Yuri's Revenge. | | |
Origin | | Bundled with other games in the franchise up to Tiberian Twilight. Included with EA Play. | |
- SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see above for affected versions).
DLC and expansion packs
Name | Notes | |
---|---|---|
Yuri's Revenge | Explicitly requires the base game to be patched to v1.006. Bundled with the The First Decade and Ultimate Collection compilations. | |
Essential improvements [edit]
Patches [edit]
- Patch 1.006 for Red Alert 2 fixes general bugs, network and exploit issues.
- Patch 1.001 for Yuri's Revenge fixes bugs, crashes and a problem when multiple CD drives are plugged in.
LAN patch (fan made) [edit]
The LAN patch lets you play LAN on Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun and Red Alert 2 (and their expansion packs) in Windows 2000 and later by changing IPX protocol to UDP.
CnCNet YR Client [edit]
- Download link
- Requires the Yuri's Revenge expansion version 1.001.
- Includes a variety of custom graphics renderers, each fitting different configurations.
- Settings changes apply to the main executables of Red Alert 2 and Yuri's Revenge.
Command & Conquer Ultimate Collection Fixed Launchers (Origin) [edit]
An unofficial patch that provides a slight enhancement to the default launchers provided with the Origin release (fixes registry entries and allows command line arguments to function properly).
It can be downloaded from moddb.
Game data [edit]
Configuration file(s) location [edit]
Save game data location [edit]
Save game cloud syncing [edit]
Video [edit]
In-game options screen.
Widescreen resolution [edit]
For changing resolution open files RA2.ini
and RA2md.ini
with any text editor and type your resolution there:
[Video] ScreenHeight=XXXX ScreenWidth=XXXX or Another way to change resolution is to add the line beneath the [Video] lines. AllowHiResModes=yes This will let you change the resolution in the game menu to any supported by your computer.
Where ScreenHeight and ScreenWidth are your desired resolution.
Input [edit]
In-game key map settings.
Audio [edit]
Audio feature | State | Notes |
---|---|---|
Separate volume controls | ||
Surround sound | ||
Subtitles | Some non-English languages might have forced subtitles enabled.[3] | |
Closed captions | ||
Mute on focus lost |
Localizations
Language | UI | Audio | Sub | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
English | ||||
Traditional Chinese | ||||
French | ||||
German | ||||
Korean | ||||
Ukrainian | Fan translation and full dubbing by TSF, download. |
Network [edit]
In-game network settings.
Multiplayer types
Type | Native | Players | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|
LAN play | 8 | Uses IPX protocol. Requires LAN patch to be replaced with UDP. | ||
Online play | 8 |
Connection types
Ports
Protocol | Port(s) and/or port range(s) |
---|---|
TCP | 3840, 4005, 4808, 4810, 4995, 7000-7002 |
UDP | 1234-1237 |
- Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.
Issues fixed [edit]
Game does not start (Origin) [edit]
Disable Origin In Game [citation needed] |
---|
|
"player already have the same serial" error [edit]
- This issue may occur when using the Command & Conquer Ultimate Collection version from Origin.
Add missing registry value [citation needed] |
---|
|
"***FATAL*** String Manager Failed to Initialize Properly" error [edit]
Setting up compatibility settings [citation needed] |
---|
Notes
|
Black screen with switchable graphics [edit]
This occurs when the game engine tries to render in VRAM.
Disable the Compatibility Mode of the game's RA.exe
executable then copy the files from the .zip at https://github.com/CnCNet/cnc-ddraw/releases/latest to your Red Alert II installation folder, replacing those present. This also allows higher and wide-screen resolutions than the Agrit fix below.
If the problem persists only in Yuri's Revenge when exiting from playing to the menu, try to set
renderer=opengl
in ddraw.ini
, auto
or direct3d9
may be causing the problem.
Another fix is to download Aqrit's ddwrapper and extract the ddraw.dll
and aqrit.cfg
files into the RA2 folder, where ra2.ini
lies. Next, ensure that only these settings are set to "1" in aqrit.cfg
:
FakeVsync = 1 NoVideoMemory = 1
Alternatively, simply download and extract the contents of this preconfigured fix into the RA2 folder. Also, consider using the performance fix as well.
Game is purple/green colored and displays only on the other half of the screen [edit]
This happens sometimes on newer versions of Windows (7, 8, 8.1 and 10). To fix this, download Aqrit's ddwrapper and extract the ddraw.dll
and aqrit.cfg
files into the RA2 folder, where ra2.ini
lies.
Some Windows elements flicker from behind the game [edit]
This happens if you have downloaded Aqrit's ddwrapper and extracted the ddraw.dll
and aqrit.cfg
files into the RA2 folder and have set the ForceDirectDrawEmulation
to "1". To fix this set ForceDirectDrawEmulation
to "0":
ForceDirectDrawEmulation = 0
Lag/low FPS [edit]
Modify the RA2.ini file [citation needed] |
---|
Notes
|
Use Command and Conquer Graphics Patcher[4] |
---|
Game runs too fast [edit]
- Before using this fix, make sure the in-game "Game Speed" slider is adjusted properly.
- "Normal" game speed is "Fast" 30FPS. "Real" speed is "Slow" 15FPS; 1 second in-game equals 1 second in real-life at 15FPS.
Use the -SPEEDCONTROL command line argument[5] |
---|
|
Hero units in "Hollywood and Vain" mission lack their unique lines [edit]
- Patch 1.01 cut the voice lines due to legal troubles
Use Hero voicelines restoration mod[6] |
---|
Other information [edit]
API [edit]
Technical specs | Supported | Notes |
---|---|---|
DirectDraw | 7 |
Executable | 32-bit | 64-bit | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Windows |
Middleware [edit]
Middleware | Notes | |
---|---|---|
Cutscenes | Bink Video | |
Multiplayer | Westwood Online |
System requirements [edit]
Windows | ||
---|---|---|
Minimum | Recommended | |
Operating system (OS) | 95 | 98, ME, 2000, XP |
Processor (CPU) | 266 MHz | 450 MHz |
System memory (RAM) | 64 MB | 128 MB |
Hard disk drive (HDD) | 350 MB | |
Video card (GPU) | 2 MB of VRAM DirectX 7.0a compatible |
Notes
- ↑ SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows 10[1] or Windows 11 and is disabled by default on Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 when the KB3086255 update is installed.[2]
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below
%PROGRAMFILES%
,%PROGRAMDATA%
, or%WINDIR%
might be redirected to%LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore
on Windows Vista and later (more details).
References
- ↑ Not Loading in Windows 10; this will break thousands of - Microsoft Community - last accessed on 2017-01-16
- ↑ Microsoft - MS15-097: Description of the security update for the graphics component in Windows: September 8, 2015 - last accessed on 2018-02-16
- ↑ Traditional Chinese version have forced subtitle enabled in-game
- ↑ http://www.stuffhost.de/files/cnc/CnCPatcher.html
- ↑ http://cnc-comm.com/community/index.php?topic=2132.0
- ↑ Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge - Hollywood and Vain Action Hero Voice Restore Mod - last accessed on 2020-01-25
How to Fix Red Alert 2 Black Screen Windows 7
Source: https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Command_&_Conquer:_Red_Alert_2
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